From the New York Times bestselling author of Life Is in the
Transitions comes a bold new road map for finding meaning and purpose
at work, based on insights drawn from hundreds of life stories of
Americans from all backgrounds and vocations
When Bruce Feiler completed his last book, which introduced readers to
the idea of the nonlinear life, he realized that the greatest frontier
of change in the world is work. Unprecedented numbers of Americans are
quitting their jobs, rethinking their routines, breaking away from
stifling expectations. We're still living through the Great Resignation
and quiet quitting.
The most suffocating iron cage of all is the premise that each of us
must have a career. We must follow a linear path of success, locking
into a dream early, always climbing higher, never stopping until we
reach the top. Few ideas have created more misery, squandered more human
potential, or ruined more relationships. Feiler resolved to help us all
imagine better.
From thousands of hours of interviews with an extraordinarily diverse
group of Americans, Feiler has distilled a powerful new vision for how
to think about work. He shows that our lives are upended by a stream of
workquakes on average every two and a half years. Sure, some people
set a goal and stick with it, but far more of us revise our passions,
change our directions, and rethink our priorities. The Search empowers
each of us to stop chasing someone else's dream and start chasing our
own.
After dismantling the three lies about work, Feiler lays out the one
truth: that each of us must write our own story. Showing that the people
who are happiest at work don't climb, but dig, Feiler introduces the six
questions to ask in a workquake that allow us to perform a meaning
audit, tapping into our truest selves and our deepest hopes to create
the meaning we crave and the success we deserve.
Both timely and timeless, this book arrives as the world reimagines our
basic assumptions about work--and shows that the answers involve not
following the outdated scripts of others, but giving yourself to
yourself, learning to dial into your own inner voice and turn the
volume all the way up.
